Has there ever been a more rugged Bluetooth speaker than the Kicker Bullfrog Jump? Thank goodness there's a built-in handle, because this thing feels like a cinderblock. It's portable in the throw-it-in-your-trunk sense, not in the put-it-in-your-backpack sense. But what made me do the biggest double take is the price—a whopping $399.95. For that kind of cash, a rugged speaker needs not only to be built like a tank, it also has to sound amazing. Luckily, the Bullfrog Jump delivers truly powerful audio performance, and has adjustable EQ via a companion app. If you're looking for an ultra-rugged Bluetooth speaker that can get really loud, it worth's consideration.

Design

Available in gray/white or green, the Bullfrog Jump is huge for a portable speaker. The handle makes it movable, but digest these numbers: It measures 10.8 by 7.8 by 5.9 inches (HWD) and weighs a whopping 8.0 pounds—that's not a typo. In other words, you probably don't want to throw this in a bag and carry it for miles on your next hike. The Bullfrog Jump strikes me as a great poolside, backyard, or social gather speaker, but its portability is limited by its size.

Unlike many speakers that are merely splash proof, the Bullfrog Jump is the real deal. It has an IP66 rating, which means it's totally protected from dust and can withstand high-pressure water jets from any direction.

Rubberized buttons across the top panel (underneath the built-in handle) control volume up/down, power, track backward, play/pause, track forward, and Bluetooth pairing. That last button also acts as a sound source button—you can choose between whatever Bluetooth device you're paired with, FM radio (a rare inclusion these days), and the 3.5mm aux input. While there's an antenna included for the radio, there's no audio cable for the aux in—at $400, that's a pretty glaring exclusion. While we're at it, there's also no speakerphone feature, which seems like a bit of an oversight.

The FM antenna cable and the audio cable connect to a covered panel on the left side of the speaker. Here, you can also find a pinhole reset button, a USB port for charging mobile devices using the Bullfrog Jump's battery, and a connection for the included 15-volt power adapter. Three power plug adapters also ship with the speaker—two for international connections and one for US wall plugs.

Behind the large, curved speaker grill paneling screwed into place on the front and back panels, the Bullfrog Jump has some very large drivers—dual 4-inch drivers augmented by 3-inch and 4-inch passive bass radiators. The pairs of drivers and radiators are arrayed in opposite directions for a room-filling stereo sound. A rubberized bottom panel keeps the speaker from moving around—a real concern considering its power—and there's also a threaded screw mount for attaching to compatible outdoor gear.

The free Connect by Kicker app for Android and iOS devices works fairly seamlessly once your speaker is connected. The best feature it offers is the EQ section—there are five EQ presets (Kicker, Outdoor, Voice, Treble, and Flat) that boost or cut various frequency ranges. With each preset, you have the ability to boost or cut the bass and treble, so all of the presets can be further refined to your tastes or whatever space you're using the speaker in. There's also an FM tuner section for use with the FM radio input. And the app allows you to link two Kicker speakers to cover a wider area.

Kicker estimates battery life to be about 20 hours (impressive for a system this powerful), but your results will vary based on your volume levels and your mix of wired, wireless, and FM radio playback. Kicker also estimates Bluetooth range is up to 100 feet—far more than the typical 30 or so feet offered by most Bluetooth speakers. Our tests didn't quite make it to the 100-foot mark, but we got farther than 60 feet before losing any signal—your environment (walls and doors, mostly) will have a large impact on the range.

Performance

One quick note: For audio testing, we used the speaker's default audio settings, but as noted earlier, it's possible to adjust the bass and treble substantially via the app.

That said, wow this speaker is very powerful. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," it delivers some serious thunder. On this track, at top, exceptionally loud volumes—around perhaps 90 percent—the drivers begin to experience some distortion. But dial the volume back just slightly, and you still have a very loud speaker delivering distortion-free, powerful bass. It's hard to consider the distortion, which can also be managed at top volumes by dialing back the bass response in the app slightly, as a real issue. Most portable speakers we test cannot touch these volume levels, and at levels that other portable outdoor speakers tend to reach, there's no distortion to speak of.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the overall sound signature. Does the Bullfrog Jump create extra bass on tracks that don't feature super deep lows? Not really. The drums on this track often sound comically thunderous on heavily bass-boosted systems, but here, they sound strong, though not terribly boosted in the deepest lows. Far more prominent is the low-mid richness of Callahan's baritone voice, which tells us that the drivers are operating more in the lows to low-mids range of bass response, less so in the subwoofer realm. The high-mids and highs are very well represented—especially if you opt for some of the EQ settings that push them forward in the mix, like the Outdoor preset. But the Bullfrog Jump's default sound signature is balanced, with bright, excellent high frequency definition and rich lows.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets plenty of high-mid presence to highlight its piercing attack. There's also some substantial thump to the loop's sustain, but we hear far less power in the sub-bass synth hits than we would if this speaker packed more subwoofer-like response. The vocals on this track get a clean delivery that never sounds harsh or overly sibilant despite the bright sound signature.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound close to flat through the Bullfrog Jump. The higher register brass, strings, and vocals own the spotlight. The lower register instrumentation takes a backseat to a certain extent—the lows are not dialed up in a way that brings the bass response forward in the mix very much.

The Kicker Bullfrog Jump is exceptionally powerful, but that doesn't mean you'll mistake it for a speaker with a massive powered subwoofer onboard. The bass response is more focused on the lows and low-mids than the deepest frequencies. Regardless, no one would ever call this sound signature weak or brittle—it's a full, rich delivery with some added definition in the higher frequencies.

Conclusions

Does this speaker exceed our expectations? No, but it certainly meets them. The Bullfrog Jump is a powerful and outdoor-proof speaker that earns its super-high price tag. It's not a speaker that everyone will need or consider paying for, but those looking for an extra-rugged, extra-loud portable Bluetooth speaker will be quite pleased with the results. That said, if you're looking to spend a little less money on an outdoor-friendly option, the JBL Xtreme, EcoXGear EcoCarbon, and Soundcast VG1 are all favorites that deliver impressive audio quality for less money.

And if portability matters less than just the splash-resistant aspect, the also-massive Soundcast Melody continues to be a powerful poolside favorite. It's also available for half the price it was when we originally reviewed it, making it a very strong value.

Kicker Bullfrog Jump

Kicker Bullfrog Jump

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